When strengthening a power line, FPL typically upgrades it to withstand gusts of 130 mph ormore. Improvements include installing stronger poles, many of them concrete, placing guy wires for additional stability, reducing the distance between poles and sometimes placing lines and equipment underground.

Lake Worth Utilities director John “Jack” Borsch said about 140 of the city-owned utility’s more than 27,000 customers were without power from around 2 a.m. to 4 or 5 a.m.

Lightning struck a pole and took out a grounding wire, but did not cause an outage. Workers had to shut off the power to the 140 customers while they replaced the wire, Borsch said.

As of 2:30 p.m., 2,912 Florida Power & Light Co. customers in Palm Beach County are without power following last night’s severe storms. The number of outages has been fluctuating throughout the day.

The National Weather Service confirmed earlier today that a tornado struck overnight in northern Palm Beach County.

UPDATE: 2:05 p.m. As a breezy day continues, 2,762 FPL customers are without power. Palm Beach County is under a wind advisory until 7 p.m. Winds are 20 to 25 mph with frequent gusts to around 35 mph, the National Weather Service said.

UPDATE: Noon. The number of FPL customers without power in Palm Beach County has dropped to 930.

UPDATE: 11:30 a.m. More than 1,900 FPL customers are without power in Palm Beach County.

UPDATE: 11:10 a.m.: Two National Weather Service meteorologists from the Miami office are on the scene in Juno Beach and Palm Beach Gardens to determine whether damage is from straight line wind or tornadic activity, and a report is expected later this evening, NWS meteorologist Larry Kelly said.

UPDATE: 10:35 a.m.: The number of FPL customers without power in Palm Beach County is down to 1,136 out of 737,916 customers. Most of the outages are in Palm Beach Gardens, Juno Beach and Jupiter, said FPL spokesman Bill Orlove.

As for the damage to lines and poles at Donald Ross Road and Alternate A1A, investigators from the National Weather Service are on the way to look into whether there was “tornadic activity,” Orlove said.

The lines in that area had not been hardened yet, Orlove said.

Crews worked through the night and into the morning as soon as winds were below 35 mph, Orlove said.

“We have crews that are focused on the hardest hit areas, and they are restoring service as quickly and safely as possible,” Orlove said.

FPL had a repair crew workforce of almost 1,800 yesterday, more than two-thirds of what it would be on a typical day. Outside contractors were brought in Sunday afternoon.

UPDATE, 9:20 a.m.: A major outage appears to have hit Palm Beach Gardens, affecting more than 2,000 customers, according to FPL.

That caused the outage number to nearly double to 3,114 FPL customers without power since the last report. Meanwhile, Broward’s number has dropped to 597, while Miami-Dade now has 4,308 customers without power.

UPDATE, 8 a.m.: Power is still out to 1,596 customers in Palm Beach County, according to FPL.

Broward County now has 657 homes without power, while Miami-Dade is down to 6,667.

UPDATE, 5:45 A.M.: Power has been restored to all but 1,748 customers in Palm Beach County, according to FPL. Broward County has 1,849 households without power and Miami-Dade now has 12,914 outages.

UPDATE, 4:45 a.m.: The number of homes and businesses in Palm Beach County still without power is 7,960, according to FPL.

UPDATE, 3:45 a.m.: More than 11,000 homes and businesses in Palm Beach County remain without power. FPL crews are working to restore power along Donald Ross Road in Jupiter after strong storms downed power lines and snapped power poles.

Nearly 1,500 are without power near Donald Ross and Central Boulevard.

A severe thunderstorm warning remains in effect until 2:45 a.m., according the National Weather Service. As of 2 a.m., there were more than 2,000 power outages along PGA Boulevard, west of Palm Beach Gardens and more than 1,100 households were affected in the Acreage, according to the Florida Power & Light power outage tracker.

The National Weather Service has canceled a tornado watch for Martin and St. Lucie counties. According to FPL, 950 households in St. Lucie County are without power and 147 in Martin County are without power.